Archaeology

Chair: David L. Browman

Home Page: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~archae/archpage.htm Location: 118 McMillan Hall Telephone: (314) 935-5231

Archaeology provides the opportunity to investigate the material remains of past societies and cultures and the methods by which they are recovered, analyzed, interpreted and reconstructed. Archaeologists investigate the entire human past from the first evidence of tool use 2.5 million years ago to historic studies of the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries. The interdisciplinary archaeology program at Washington University seeks to integrate a wide range of directions — from paleoanthropology to historic and industrial archaeology and from classical archaeology to specialties such as paleoethnobotany and archaeozoology.

To provide a comprehensive understanding of archaeology, the faculty in the archaeology program emphasizes two approaches: the humanistic, which is represented by classical archaeology, and the social scientific, which is represented by anthropological archaeology. The anthropological archaeology faculty focuses on biologically based studies (paleoethnobotany and zooarchaeology) to research such questions as the origins of food production. The classical archaeological faculty capitalizes on ancient documents in investigating the more recent human past. Archaeology faculty members are involved in research projects in many regions, such as China, Africa, Greece, Peru, Kentucky and Louisiana.

News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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Working up a sweat Dinosaurs were warm-blooded, new study says Nov. 11, 2009 -- Were dinosaurs "warm-blooded" like present-day mammals and birds, or "cold-blooded" like present day lizards? The implications of this simple-sounding question go beyond deciding whether or not you'd snuggle up to a dinosaur on a cold winter's evening. In a study published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, a team of researchers, including Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has found strong evidence that many dinosaur species were probably warm-blooded.

Fishy science First direct evidence of substantial fish consumption by early modern humans in China July 9, 2009 -- Freshwater fish are an important part of the diet of many peoples around the world, but it has been unclear when fish became an essential part of the year-round diet for early humans. A new study by an international team of researchers, including Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences, shows it may have happened in China as far back as 40,000 years ago.

Friendly apes Primates evolved to be social, not aggressive Sussman tells AAAS Feb. 16, 2009 -- Sussman Primates are social animals. But why did they become social and what are the causes for the differences in social structure among various primate species? Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, addressed those questions and more in his talk "A Comparative Overview of Primate Social Organization" during the 2009 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Feb. 15 in Chicago.

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Faculty Experts:

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Gayle J. Fritz Associate Professor of Archeaology in Arts and Sciences Expertise: human-plant interrelationship, plant remains, subsistence continuity, agricultural systems, paleoenthnobotany, develpment of agricultural systems, plant domestication, … Direct contact: (314) 935-8588 / gjfritz@wustl.edu

John Kelly Lecturer in Anthropology in Arts & Sciences Kelly's interest and expertise is in Eastern North American archaeology with a focus on the central Mississippi River Valley and the cultural developments related to Mississippian culture, especially the Cahokia site. A passionate interest in this center of Mississippian society began nearly thirty ... Expertise: North American archaeology, late precontact Native American societies, community plans, ceramic analysis, religion and symbolism, history of North American archaeology Direct contact: (314) 935-4609 / jkelly@wustl.edu

Tristram Kidder Chair, Department of Anthropology in Arts and Sciences Kidder's research over the past 15 years has focused on archaeological study of the evolution of human societies in the Southeastern United States. He has been especially interested in the emergence of social ranking, the development of domesticated food crops and the causal (or potentially causal) ... Expertise: North American archaeology, geoarchaeology, ceramic analysis, humans and climate change, plant domestication, Mississippi River, southeastern United States, … Direct contact: (314) 935-5252 / trkidder@wustl.edu

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Related News Clips:

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Ancient nomads offer insights to modern crises The New York Times and 1 others Aug. 8, 2007 -- Every summer for the past eight years, WUSTL anthropologist Michael Frachetti has come to the desert steppe that rolls like endless yellow waves across this expansive Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan searching for evidence of a vast, connected nomadic society. His work concerns Bronze Age nomads, and his scholarship is aimed purely at a historical understanding of how a preliterate society functioned more than 3,000 years ago. But his work coincides with a geopolitical reality that has important implications for American foreign policy makers: many of the countries that most trouble the West -- like Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia -- have government institutions that reflect a nomadic past.

Digging for the Truth The History Channel Sept. 22, 2006 -- WUSTL anthropology and archaeology professors Tristram Kidder and John Kelly were featured in a History Channel show on the people who lived in Cahokia.

Fossils reveal human drift to 'beauty' The Japan Times (Japan) Jan. 14, 2005 -- How did human diversity evolve? Natural selection is the traditional answer. But it is not the only one, as archaeologists discovered at the end of last year. WUSTL archaeologist James Cheverud and South African colleague Rebecca Ackermann suggest that while natural selection may select for or against some mutation, diversity which is produced through genetic drift has no adaptive advantage. What this means is that as human culture and technology developed, we became sheltered from the raw strength of natural selection. And with the relaxing of natural selection, facial diversity was free to increase.